User blog:Pinkguy the b0ss/Sonic Adventure 2 Review
... ...Wow. That's all I can say. Wow. It's me again, DiamondMinerStudios, and if you couldn't tell, I'm talking about Sonic Adventure 2 for the Sega Dreamcast today. I'll tell you now, I have quite a bit to say about this one. Before we begin, I want to preface by saying that this was the first 3D Sonic game I've played. I also have the first Sonic Adventure game, which I'll cover some time down the road, but it just so happens that this is the one I started out with. I've heard opinions all over the map on this one - people like ExoParadigmGamer and the Great Clement absolutely love it, others are more indifferent or simply don't personally like it like SomecallmeJohnny, and some absolutely hate it like ProJared and Egoraptor. Going in to this one, I wasn't sure how it would be. I went in with realistic expectations and gave it an honest shot, disregarding all opinions I've heard. Now, I'll tell you what I personally thought of this game. Did I like it, or did I dislike it? Let's find out. Story This game's story is both great and bad at the same exact time. On one hand, given that this was an early 3D game and that there was really no standard for cutscenes back in 2001 (when this game came out), the animations and voice acting really haven't aged that well. There's some cheesy and schlocky line deliveries here and there, sometimes characters talk over each other, the motion capture animations can look jerky and unnatural at times, and the animations weren't synched with the English voice acting. Everyone seems keen to point out these things whenever discussion about these games comes up. What these people seem to forget is that other games from this time period, such as Star Fox 64, Resident Evil, and Mega Man 8 also had dated story presentations with cheesy acting and hokey dialouge. Back then, games like Ratchet & Clank or Sly Cooper hadn't come out yet, so the standards for voice acting were much lower. That doesn't automatically mean SA2 has good story presentation, but I'm confused as to why those games are treated differently. As for me, I can agree that these things do detract from the presentation, but I can't help but love the cutscenes anyway. The voice acting and animations are so entertaining that I was laughing out loud the whole time through. The cutscenes are immensely entertaining to me, because I absolutely love ironically enjoyable cutscenes in games. Super Mario Sunshine was the same way for me. Honestly, though, buried under the dated presentation is a genuinely solid Sonic story, probably the best one in the series so far. There's actually two interlocking plots occuring at the same time - a Hero and Dark story, and they both converge for a Last story segment at the end of the game. It's a lengthy plot, so if you want an in-depth analysis, I would recommend this video by Ruby of Blue, as he explains it better than I ever could. Essentially, Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles attempt to save the world while Dr. Eggman, Shadow the Hedgehog, and Rouge the Bat attempt to conquer it. Eventually, Eggman's plan backfires and sends the space station they're on, the Space Colony ARK, to begin falling from orbit and onto Earth... er, um, Mobius or whatever it's called. The groups then team up, and proceed to the core of the ARK. The Biolizard, a prototype for the ultimate life form, is then released. After Shadow defeats it, it uses Chaos Control and fuses with the Space Colony, and keeps it on its collision course by literally dragging it towards the planet. Sonic and Shadow then use the Chaos Emeralds to go super, and do battle with the Biolizard-ARK fusion, called the Finalhazard. After attacking its weak points and dislodging it from the ARK, Sonic and Shadow use Chaos Control to stabilize the ARK before it can crash into the planet. Shadow then falls to the planet due to his inexperience using Chaos Emeralds. The characters, sitting in the now-stable space colony, then reminisce about the events of the game. Overall, it's actually a pretty good story. I've heard some suggest that it's not a good plot, but I honestly disagree. It's just a shame that the presentation holds it back from being a truly exceptional story. Before I move on, though, I have to address one common criticism - the story apparently takes itself way too seriously. While this may apply to the Last story segment, the Hero and Dark stories absolutely don't take themselves seriously at all. Sure, this game does have moments of tension, but it was the same way in the all of the previous games. I can understand that I simply might not be seeing something that these people are seeing, but I personally found that this story was as lighthearted as the other Sonic games and was immensely enjoyable, whether it was in the way the writers intended or not. I think I've spent long enough rambling about this topic, so let's move on to the graphics and soundtrack. Graphics For a 2001 Dreamcast game, Sonic Adventure 2 is pretty nice looking. The environments have beautiful textures, a healthy pallette of color, and the stages are very visually interesting. The models also look great for the time, with the main characters, Eggman's mech, the Master Emerald and its shards, and the Biolizard being highlights. However, you know what the biggest strength of the visuals is? This game runs at a full 60 fps, even through composite video in 480i on a CRT TV, which is how I played this game. It's also a solid 60 fps with very little slowdown. If there are frame drops, it's on the rare occasion that the screen gets overloaded with geometry. In addition, if you use component, RGB, or VGA, you can get a full 480p out of the game, which can be upscaled all the way up to HD and still look great today. This was on the Dreamcast as well, which was supposedly less powerful than the PS2 (even though its library has a much higher percentage of games with progressive scan support). I'm not a graphics nut and 480i on a CRT is good enough for me, but I just thought I would mention these things. Soundtrack My oh my, this game's soundtrack is phenomenal. I personally have a soft spot for the OST of Sonic 3&K, but the best of SA2's OST easily outclasses most of 3&K's. Each and every song is catchy, memorable, and full of energy, like every Sonic soundtrack should be. There's also a massive genre variety, including Rock & Roll, Rap that actually doesn't suck, and even Big Band and Jazz. Some of my favorite tracks include City Escape, Green Forest, Route 101/Route 280, Meteor Herd, Final Rush, Security Hall, Mad Space, the Chao Garden theme, and of course, Live and Learn, the game's main theme. This soundtrack just has too many great tracks to list. One flaw, unfortunately, is that the sound mixing isn't that great. The music is often too loud to make out the dialouge. It's not so bad as to make the voice acting inaudible, but they really should have mixed the audio better. This is only an issue in cutscenes, and there's also subtitles, so it doesn't offend me at all. Gameplay Alright, with a solid plot, great visuals, and an incredible soundtrack, there's a good foundation in place. However, without a good game to back that stuff up, it would all be pointless. Does Sonic Adventure 2 have gameplay that supports these things? Short answer, holy hell yes it does. In fact, this may just be the most fun I've ever had playing a Sonic game, and I've beaten all of the classics on Genesis and Sega CD. To start, the controls are absolutely perfect. The camera works exactly like the Spyro games, as in the shoulder buttons rotate it when held down. It's not perfect, but I'd say it works just as well as it did in Spyro and never got intrusive. The controls for Sonic and Shadow themselves felt a little sensitive at first, but after a short time, I got used to them. The movement feels smooth as butter, and the jump physics are just right. A new move, the homing attack (which was added in SA1 and carried over here), feels great to use. If there's no enemies around, Sonic does an airdash to cross gaps, which allows you to jump quite far. This makes the action speed stages a blast to plow through. There's also a subtle addition of "whoosh" sounds when you make a jump or use the homing attack. Just like Super Mario Sunshine, these subtle sound effects make the moves very satisfying to use. There's a reason why everyone considers these the best stages in the game. However, this isn't the only control scheme in the game. The second gameplay style, mech shooting with Eggman and Tails, has its own scheme. These stages are a common criticism of the game, with seemingly everyone claiming that the mechs are clunky and control so poorly as to make the stages unplayable. And to those who say this, I'd like to ask..... ....What game have you all been playing? The mech controls work perfectly fine for me. Just like Sonic, the movement and jumping feel just right, and the lock-on is very responsive. I guess turning around can be an issue, as the mechs sometimes stop in place and lock up for a second, but this never got me killed or anything like that. Trust me, it's nowhere near as terrible as the controls of Super Mario 3D Land or Sonic Genesis. Personally, I had a lot of fun with mech shooting and consider it the second-best playstyle in the game. The worst controls in the game, though, are the go-karts. The acceleration is fine, but the turning is unfortunately stiff and too sluggish to avoid crashing into walls. The drift, which mitigates this, is quite cryptic - you have to let go of and tap the A button, and the game lets you drift for a few seconds. However, these things don't bother me, considering how there's only two go-kart stages in the game, and they're still fun despite the awkward steering. These controls also never got me killed, save for one time I fell off the stage, but that was because there was a fake-out ramp I fell for so it was completely my fault. The kart racing is probably my least favorite playstyle in the game overall, but it's still pretty fun. As for the level design itself, it's absolutely incredible. The levels test your platforming and combat skills, but get gradually harder as the game goes along rather than expecting perfection from the beginning. This game is also the one of this series which achieves a perfect balance between speed and platforming. Sonic and Shadow feel very fast, while at the same time, the game's camera and enemy placement work perfectly around this, and there's plenty of platforming. The mech shooting levels are also great, featuring tons of platforming and fun combat using that brilliant lock-on mechanic. A common criticism is that these stages are too linear and have no branching paths, so this game is not a good Sonic game. As for me, I like multiple paths when done well, but prefer when platformers keep it straightforward, so I enjoyed the level design of Sonic Adventure 2 quite a bit. However, I'm not quite done yet. There's one more playstyle - treasure hunting with Knuckles and Rouge. Personally, this is my least favorite of the three main gameplay styles, but I still enjoyed it quite a bit. The game asks you to locate three objects, usually Master Emerald shards, but sometimes Keys or Chaos Emeralds. A common complaint with these stages is that they're too open-ended and take too long to complete, which is ironic, considering how the other stages constantly get shat on for being too linear. You can't have your cake and eat it too. Anyways, why did I enjoy these stages? I'm personally someone who loves collectathon games and can't get enough of them, which is why I love Banjo-Kazooie, the Spyro trilogy, Super Mario 64, and it's also why Super Mario Sunshine is my favorite game of all time. With that in mind, the treasure hunting stages are essentially this game's attempt to have collectathon gameplay. I think it succeeds. The stages may be the least fun in the game, but I still had a blast playing them. Though, I do have a few criticisms. My biggest one, and you may have seen this one coming, is the radar. As opposed to the first game, which tracked all of the three emerald shards at once, the one in SA2 only tracks them one at a time. This can unfortunately drag out a few stages to about 10 minutes or more if you're unsure where to look. Thankfully, the game does have hints, which help out quite a bit. In addition, most stages are of the perfect size, so you won't find yourself getting lost if you pay attention. There's only one treasure hunting stage I didn't care for - Mad Space. It's just way too big and confusing to navigate, and features a wonky gravity gimmick. However, I don't think this stage is nearly as bad as everyone else says it is. So yeah, I enjoyed basically everything in this game. Now, it's time to talk about the game's difficulty. Difficulty I personally didn't find this game to be insanely difficult, but it does get pretty hard in a few levels. The ones that immediately come to mind are Final Rush, Final Chase, and Cannon's Core, since they're all the final stages of their respective stories. Final Rush, Sonic's final stage, features challenging rail grinding and platforming over a giant bottomless pit. I personally had quite a bit of trouble with this level, but I still had a lot of fun playing it. As for Final Chase, Shadow's final stage, you have to platform across gravity cylinders over a bottomless pit. They feature an impressive gravity mechanic - think Super Mario Galaxy, only six years prior and on a less powerful system. I personally really enjoyed this stage overall as well, but I won't lie when I say it was kind of annoying near the end. Still, this stage is tolerable at worst. The one stage I will certainly not defend is Cannon's Core. I know it's the final stage and it's supposed to be hard, but what reason was there to cram what's essentially five mini-stages into one? The Tails and Knuckles section are easily the worst two in the level, with Tails' featuring obnoxious enemy placement, especially those artificial chaos enemies. Knuckles' section has very annoying enemy placement as well, and requires you to swim in tight corridors and solve water puzzles, only made "better" by the slightly imprecise swimming controls. And if you get a game over anywhere in this stage, you have to start the whole thing over from the beginning. This was easily my least favorite stage in the game on my first playthrough, but now, I've gotten to the point I can A-rank it on my first try. Doesn't make it a very good level, but still, it can only offend me so much. While I'm on the subject of levels I'm not the biggest fan of, Eternal Engine, Tails' final stage in the Hero Story, can also be mildly annoying with not-so-great enemy placement. That stage is still enjoyable enough, though, because at least it doesn't last a million years. Same for Sky Rail, my least favorite speed stage. I just find those elevators you homing attack repeatedly to be somewhat finnicky, and you tend to go flying into a bottomless pit if you mistime your homing attack. Like Eternal Engine, I still enjoy Sky Rail to an extent, but it's definitely one of my lesser favorite speed stages. Tell you what, though, none of these are anywhere near as bad as Labyrinth Zone from the GBA version of Sonic 1, so I guess that's something, right? Whatever, moving on. As for every other stage in the game, the design and level of challenge are perfectly fine. My favorites include City Escape, Green Forest, Metal Harbor, Pumpkin Hill, Meteor Herd, Cosmic Wall, and Radical Highway, among many others. Security Hall was also a pleasant surprise. Even with its five-minute time limit, the three Chaos Emeralds aren't that hard to find with Rouge, as the stage isn't that large. It's honestly one of my favorite treasure hunting stages (at least for Rouge). I'm still not done. The bosses are also pretty good, if on the easy side. I appreciate that they change up their attacks, and aren't so easy that you beat them in 30 seconds. Unfortunately, I don't like the Sonic vs. Shadow battle at the end of the Hero and Dark stories very much, especially the one in the Dark story, as it's unneccesarily obtuse - how was I supposed to know that you have to fall behind Sonic/Shadow, dodge their attacks, and then run up and hit them? It was a mild pain on my first run, but luckily, this boss gets much better when you're more experienced. Like Cannon's Core, this doesn't automatically make it good, but it once again isn't as offensive as it was on my first playthrough, and it wasn't extremely offensive to begin with. The fight that really takes the cake, though, is first boss fight against the Biolizard. This is easily the worst boss in the whole game. I like the idea of having to attack its weak point by grinding on rails that are on the boss, or by jumping on the boss' purple sphere attack with the homing attack, but I found the boss' dark energy attack to be nearly undodgeable. Hitting the weak point can also be kind of finnicky, as you'll occsionally take damage when you swore you hit it. This would have been an ok fight (I guess), but then they had to screw it up further by putting instant-kill water streams in the arena, and then have the boss' head chase you with the camera in front of you so you can fall into these streams without even seeing them. I spent almost two whole hours on this boss, and I had a pretty aggravating time. Thankfully, the Biolizard is the worst the bosses ever get. The final boss against the Finalhazard is great. It's a tense battle in space against the final form of the Biolizard, somewhat similar to Doomsday Zone in that you're Super Sonic/Super Shadow flying in space. You have to approach the boss and ram into its weak points while dodging its attacks, and have to do it fast because you die if you run out of rings or if the timer reaches five minutes. I loved this boss fight, and it's a perfect capstone to an excellent game. I do wish that getting hit by the boss' attacks didn't knock you back ten miles, which admittedly annoyed me, but this doesn't ruin it. During this boss, I literally felt like I was exacting revenge on the Biolizard for all those deaths on the previous boss... as dumb as that sounds. Overall, while the Last Story has a few annoying moments, I still overall enjoy it and this final boss and the amazing ending are no exception. Before I wrap up, there's a few more things I want to mention. Despite its occasionally high difficulty, this game is also very forgiving. It has an autosave feature, so if you get a game over, all you have to do is start the stage you were on over from the beginning. There's also a lives system, which I honestly wish wasn't there. It's not the worst thing ever, but having infinite lives would certainly make levels like Cannon's Core much more enjoyable. Still, this doesn't come anywhere close to ruining the game. One thing I was initially indifferent on was the ranking system. From the beginning, Sonic games have always tallied your score at the end of the level, based on things such as the amount of rings you collected, enemies you killed, etc. Sonic Adventure 2 is the first game to give that score tally a purpose in the form of the ranking system. After clearing a level, the points you earned from things such as collecting rings, defeating enemies, and your clear time will be added up, and you'll be ranked on a scale from E to A (insert "surprise mechanics" joke here). Like I said, I was initially indifferent on this system, since A-ranks aren't required to beat the game. However, having played the game and getting more experienced with it, the ranking system is one of my favorite things about the game. For one, the game's levels are expertly designed around this system. The speed stages have more opportunities to pull off tricks, the mech stages encourage chaining together combos, and the treasure hunting levels emphasize mastery of your character's moveset to effectively traverse the levels (and no, the hints do not decrease your rank, and anyone that says they do is a big fat liar). Most of these levels can all be cleared in anything from 2-6 minutes, and are all masterfully crafted using a little thing called the Sega Learning Curve. You may have heard of this saying. It basically refers to games that may be offputting or somewhat difficult at first, but open up on subsequent playthroughs. Something like Super Mario Sunshine, Glover, classic arcade games, and several Mega Man games fall under this category. Most games in the Sonic series are prime examples of the learning curve, and Sonic Adventure 2 is no exception. I've overcome the learning curve, and now enjoy going after A-ranks immensely. In fact, sometimes I won't be satisfied with my run of a stage until I get an A-rank (ex. Final Rush). There's something so inherently satisfying about perfecting your run through a stage. I don't know what else to say, the ranking system was very well-implemented. The final criticism I want to address is the "one thirds good" statistic. Basically, those who hate SA2 usually argue that it's a "shitty game that's only 1/3 good, 2/3 bad." It's a point that SomecallmeJohnny originally brought up in his SA2 review, in which he said he only got enjoyment from 10 out of the game's 31 stages. This point became commonplace after ProJared's awful, nitpicky'' "review" of the game, and became the popular opinion shortly following the Game Grumps overcriticizing everything Sonic-related. What you need to remember is that this was Johnny's OPINION, and wasn't intended to be a taken-for-granted fact. Of course, the overly-biased fans adopted Johnny's original talking points to try and make the game look bad while artificially increasing the quality of their favorite games. It seems to me that these people either didn't play the game, or are just hating it for the sake of saying that 3D Sonic games are all bad, or that Sonic was never good. I'm frankly sick of hearing this statistic. It's fine if you played the game and genuinely didn't like it, but I would appreciate it if those certain fans (you know who you are) would quit whining and accept that others will like the game. This is the same thing I said about Super Mario Sunshine - you have every right to dislike certain games, just don't be a complete asshole about it. Ok? Ok. I think now is a good time to wrap this up. Conclusion Overall, Sonic Adventure 2 is an amazing game that was even better than I expected it to be, and I already had a feeling it would be at least good going in. It has an enjoyable story, great visuals, an awesome soundtrack, fun gameplay styles, and amazing level design. As for how it ranks against the other games, Sonic Adventure 2 easily tops Sonic 1, Sonic 2, and especially Sonic CD and Sonic Mania. As for Sonic 3&K.... it's much less clear cut for me. While I will forever have a soft spot for that game, if I'm being honest with myself.... Sonic Adventure 2 comes out on top, by just a little bit. It's easily the best game I've played all year as of writing, and as I just said, it's also my personal favorite Sonic game. I would obviously recommend you play this game if you haven't. Don't take others people's opinions for granted - try this game out for yourself and come to your own conclusions, and don't let anyone else decide your opinion for you, whether it's me or anyone else. Whew, what a mouthful. The moment I finished this game, I knew I would have a lot to say. This was my introduction to 3D Sonic, and needless to say, I'm hooked. I'm for sure going to play the other games. I don't give a 'SHIT '''if I love or hate them, whether they're good or bad, I'M PLAYING THEM, GODDAMMIT! As for what comes next, I'm still not done with Sonic.... like I literally just said. The next game I want to play is the first Sonic Adventure. I've played a little bit of it, and so far, it's pretty good. I'm not sure how it will rank compared to the other games, but I'm at least expecting it to be good. After that, I'm more than likely going for Generations, Colors, Heroes, Unleashed (both the 360 and Wii versions), the Advance games, and if I'm still in the mood, maybe I'll be an explorer and play the Rush games and the hated games like... oh boy... Sonic 06. You know, in case I feel like torturing myself with that dead horse. I'll likely do a short combined review of Sonic Adventure DX and Sonic Adventure 2 Battle as well, both for Gamecube and PC. After Sonic Adventure, I'm likely gonna play the Ratchet & Clank trilogy, as I'm particularly compelled to play them before other games like Jak & Daxter or Earthworm Jim, and I've been strangely compelled to revisit the Pokemon games, but you really never know. I'll see you next time for Sonic Adventure, and whatever comes after that, see you then. Category:Blog posts